Therapeutic garment for maternity use

ABSTRACT

A THERAPEUTIC GARMENT FOR MATERNITY USE INCLUDING CONTIGUOUS FRONT, REAR, AND OPPOSITE LEFT AND RIGHT SIDE PANELS ADAPTED IN USE TO ENCIRCLE THE TRUNK OF A PREGNANT USER HAVING A DISTENDED OR ENLARGED ADBOMINAL REGION, AN ELASTIC SUPPORT PANEL SECURED TO AND OVERLYING THE FRONT PANEL AND HAVING A PAPERED ENDS TERMINATING ADJACENT THE RIGHT ANUD LEFT SIDE PANELS, RIGHT AND LEFT TRIANGULAR ANCHOR PANELS HAVING THEIR RESPECTIVE BASE EDGES VERTICALLY DISPOSED AND SECURED TO THE BACK PANEL AND THEIR OPPOSITE FREE ENDS OR APEXES TERMINATING ADJACENT THE LEFT AND RIGHT SIDE PANELS AT A POINT HIGHER THAN THE ENDS OF THE ANCHOR AND SUPPORT PANELS, WHEREBY A MATERNITY GARMENT IS PROVIDED WHICH WITHOUT STRUCTURAL MODIFICATION COMFORTABLY ACCOMMODATES USERS HAVING WIDE, NARROW, HIGH OR LOW HIPS, DOES NOT BIND OR CUT THE USER WHEN WORN, PROVIDES A SMOOTH, UNRUMPLED OR UNGATHERED APPEARANCE, AND PROVIDES ADEQUATE ADBOMINAL SUPPORT THROUGHOUT ALL STAGES OF PREGNANCY.

Nov. 23, 1971' {MLUAMS 3,621,849

THERAPEUTIC GARMENT FOR MATERNITY USE Filed Oct. 13, 1969 United StatesPatent 3,621,849 THERAPEUTIC GARMENT FOR MATERNITY USE Marguerite R.Williams, Trumbull, Conn., assignor to Surgical Appliance Industries,Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio Filed Oct. 13, 1969, Ser. No. 865,887 Int. Cl.A41c 1/08 U.S. Cl. 128-579 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Atherapeutic garment for maternity use including contiguous front, rear,and opposite left and right side panels adapted in use to encircle thetrunk of a pregnant user having a distended or enlarged abdominalregion; an elastic support panel secured to and overlying the frontpanel and having tapered ends terminating adjacent the right and leftside panels; right and left triangular anchor panels having theirrespective base edges vertically disposed and secured to the back paneland their opposite free ends or apexes terminating adjacent the left andright side panels at a point higher than the ends of the anchor andsupport panels, whereby a maternity garment is provided which withoutstructural modification comfortably accommodates users having wide,narrow, high or low hips, does not bind or cut the user when worn,provides a smooth, unrumpled or ungathered appearance, and providesadequate abdominal support throughout all stages of pregnancy.

This invention relates to therapeutic garments, and more particularly totherapeutic garments of the maternity type adapted to be worn bypregnant women for providing abdominal support.

Maternity garments, or corsets, of the type adapted to provide abdominalsupport have existed for many years and have taken many forms. Typicallysuch garments, which are body encircling and adapted to embrace thetrunk of the wearer, include a front section of relatively highlyelastic two-way stretch material for accommodating the abdominaldistension or enlargement characteristic of pregnant women, a rearpanel, and opposite side panels interconnecting the front and rearpanels. To provide some measure of support for the pregnancy-inducedabdominal enlargement, the maternity corsets of the prior art havetypically included one or more auxiliary front support panels.Generally, the auxiliary front panels take the form of elongated elasticwebs or bands which underlie the highly elastic front panel and havetheir opposite ends secured or anchored to the side panels. If only onesuch auxiliary web is provided, the web is typically horizontal,spanning the lower portion of the front panel, whereas if two such websare included, the webs are arranged in criss-cross fashion.

The prior art maternity corsets have suffered from a number of defects.For example, in the prior art corsets the auxiliary support panelsunderlie the main front panel, and because of this relationship to thefront panel, have a tendency to bunch or roll as the garment is beingpositioned in place about the wearers body. Specifically, as the garmentis pulled upwardly about the wearers trunk, the upper edge or margin ofthe generally horizontally extending auxiliary support web has atendency, because of the relative frictional engagement between it andthe abdomen of the wearer, to roll or bunch, rendering the garmentuncomfortable as well as unattractive. To unroll the auxiliary support,and thereby correct the situation, the wearer must reach down betweenthe elastic front panel and the abdomen and manipulate the web. This isoften not easily done, particularly in the latter stages of pregnancywhen the abdominal enlargement is considererable, because the frontpanel which covers the auxiliary web is drawn rather tight making accessto the auxiliary web diflicult. Compounding the problem in the latterstages of pregnancy is the fact that the wearer is often unable toactually see the auxiliary support, which underlies the abdominalenlargement, while attempting to unroll it due to the considerableextent to which the enlarged abdomen projects into the line of sight,obscuring the auxiliary web from the wearer.

Another problem of the prior art maternity corset proposals is that manyhave failed to provide means for ad justing the garment to accommodatethe increasing degrees of abdominal enlargement found in successivestages of pregnancy. Without such adjustment means, the garment must bedesigned to comfortably fit in all stages of pregnancy. Unfortunately,however, when a garment is designed to comfortably fit a user inadvanced stages of pregnancy, the same garment without adjustment meansdoes not provide satisfactory or meaningful abdominal support to thesame user during initial stages of pregnancy. Thus, without theprovision of adjustment means, the maternity corset is unable to provideproper support at all stages of pregnancy.

It has been an objective of this invention to provide a maternity corsethaving simple and effective adjustment means for enabling properabdominal support to be provided throughout all stages of the pregnancy,and which obviates the prior art auxiliary web rolling or bunchingproblem.

This objective has been accomplished in accordance with certainprinciples of this invention by providing, in a garment havinginterconnecting front, rear and opposite side panels, very novel andunobvious adjustable auxiliary support means which include an auxiliarysupport panel overlying the front panel and having tapered endsterminating adjacent the side panels, an anchor panel connected to therear panel and having tapered opposite ends terminating adjacent theside panels at a point above the ends of the support panel, and a pairof narrow adjustable length inelastic straps connecting the adjacentends of the auxiliary support and anchor panels. (In accordance withthis invention, wherein the auxiliary support panel overlies the highlyelastic front panel, as the garment 1s moved into position about thewearers body the upper edge or margin of the auxiliary panel not indirect contact with the users abdominal region, and, hence, does notroll or gather. Additionally, because the strap interconnecting theanchor and auxiliary panels is adjustable in length, the auxiliary panelcan be made to provide proper abdominal support throughout all stages ofpregnancy.

In addition to the foregoing, certain other advantages exist. Forexample, because the ends of the auxiliary support and anchor panels andthe adjustable interconnecting strap are tapered and narrow, they have asmall vertical dimension at a point adjacent the sides of the wearersbody. Being narrow in this region, the adjustable auxiliary supportmeans does not cut or bind when the wearer assumes a sitting position.Another advantage is that the anchor panel, while narrow at the pointwhere it connects to the adjustment straps, is not narrow at the pointwhere it is secured to the back panel, the vertical dimension of theanchor panels at this point being rather substantial. By virtue of thissubstantial vertical dimension of the anchor panel at the point where itis secured to the back panel, the force applied to the anchor panel, asa consequence of the support given the abdomen by the auxiliary panel,can be distributed to the back panel over a substantial length with theresult that the force is evenly distributed over the entire back panel.Finally, due to the nature of the tapered anchor and auxiliary supportpanels, the interconnecting adjustment straps can assume differentvertical positions relative to the side panels, there- 'byaccommodating, without structural modification of the corset, usershaving wide, narrow, high or low hips.

These and other advantages and objectives of the invention will becomemore readily apparent from a detailed description of a preferredembodiment taken in conjunction with a description of the drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a preferred embodiment of thematernity corset.

FIG. 2 is a rear elevational view of the corset.

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the corset showing the relationshipof the tapered ends of the support and anchor panels and the narrowadjustment strap.

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view of the corset in use.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along lines 55 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the adjustment strap.

A preferred embodiment of the maternity corset incorporating theprinciples of this invention is depicted in FIGS. 1-4. As shown in thesefigures, the maternity corset is generally tubular or body encircling inshape, having a tubular or cylindrical composite of panels or sections10 and an adjustable auxiliary support means 12 located exteriorly ofthe composite 10. The tubular panel composite 10 includes a front 14, arear or back 16, an opposite right and left side 18 and 20interconnecting the front and rear. The back or rear 16 is preferablyfabricated of inelastic material although two-way stretch material orone-way stretch material extensive in either a horizontal or verticaldirection can be used. The back section 16 includes a pair ofhorizontally spaced, vertically disposed stays 22 and 24. The stays 22and 24 are preferably fabricated of stiff metallic band material and aremaintained properly positioned by suitable fabric casings 25 whichcompletely enclose the stays and which are stitched or sewn to the innersurface of the back section or panel 16. The stays 22 and 24 providestiffness to the back 16 for enhancing the support provided by thegarment to the lower back region of the wearer. The left and right sides18 and 20 of the garment and the front 14 except for an insert 26 to bedescribed, are preferably fabricated of moderately elastic two-waystretch material. The insert 26 in the front 14 is fabricated of two-waystretch material having a very high and greater degree of elasticity inthe vertical direction. The insert 26 is dimensioned and configured suchthat in use the insert 26 is substantially co-extensive with the wearersabdominal enlargement occasioned by pregnancy. (See FIG. 4.) Thus, whenthe garment is properly positioned about the wearers trunk, as shown inFIG. 4, the highly elastic insert 26 embraces the enlarged abdominalregion, with the less elastic region 27 of the front 14 located beneaththe insert 26 disposed below the abdominal enlargement.

The adjustable auxiliary support means 12 of the garment includes anabdominal support section or panel 30, which is disposed to overlie thelower portion of the insert 26. The abdominal support section 30 issecured to the front 14 of the garment, preferably by stitching thatportion 31 of its lower edge which is co-extensive with the lower edgeof the insert 26 to the upper edge of the front section 27. Theabdominal support section 30 has tapered opposite left and right ends 34and 35. The tapered ends 34 and 35 are generally directed toward thesides 18 and 20 and angled upwardly upwardly to the horizontal at anangle of approximately 45. In use, the central portion 33 of theabdominal support section 30 is adapted to underlie and support thelower portion of the wearers pregnancy-induced abdominal enlargement.

The adjustable auxiliary support means 12 further includes an anchormeans comprising left and right triangular sections 36 and 38. Thetriangular sections 36 and 38 each have a base edge 39 and 40 secured,for example by stitching, to the opposite vertical side edges of theback panel 16, and tapered ends or apexes 41 and 42. The

anchor sections 36 and 38 overlie the sides 18 and 20 of 75 the corset,with the ends or apexes 41 and 42 terminating approximately midwaybetween front '14 and back 16. Further, the anchor panels 36 and 38positioned such that the tapered ends 41 and 42 thereof are locatedabove, or higher, relative to the tapered ends 34 and 35 of theabdominal support section 30. Location of the tapered ends 41 and 42above or higher than the tapered ends 34 and 35 causes the force appliedto the abdominal support section 30 by straps 44 and 46 to be described,to be directed in a generally laterally and upwardly direction, such asapproximately 45 to the horizontal. As shown in FIG. 4, which depictsthe orientation of the abdominal support section 30, when the garment isworn by the user, the application of force to the ends 34 and 35 of theabdominal support section 30, the anchor panels 36 and 38 via the straps44 and 46 is along a direction of 45 to the horizontal, affordingcomfortable and proper support for the lower region of the wearersenlarged abdomen.

The adjustable auxiliary support means 12, as indicated, includes rightand left straps 44 and 46. The strap 44 interconnects the end 42 of theright anchor panel 38 and the end 35 of the abdominal support section30, while the left strap 46 interconnects the end 41 of the left anchorpanel 36 and the end 34 of the abdominal support section 30. The straps44 and 46 are relatively narrow, having a very small dimension in thevertical direction. With the straps 44 and 46 so dimensioned, and theends 34, 35 and 41, 42 of the support section 30 and the anchor section36, 38 tapered, the adjustable auxiliary support 12 does not cut thewearer along an imaginary line 50 which would otherwise occur were thestrap and ends differently configured such as made wider.

The straps 44 and 46 are provided with suitable adjustment means 52 and54 to facilitate lengthening or shortening of the straps 44 and 46. Theadjustment means 52 and 54 in a preferred form may constituet clips 56,58 which are slideable to different positions along the length of theirrespective straps whereat they are frictionally held in normal use. Tothe clips 56 and 58 are secured the free ends 44A and 46A of the straps44 and 46, after having been passed through metal rings 60 and 62secured to the ends 34 and 35 of the abdominal support section 30 andfolded back upon themselves. In operation when the metal clips 56, 58are slid along the length of the straps 44, 46 by the user, the ends44A, 46A of the straps are moved toward or away from the rings 60, 62lengthening or shortening the straps. This provides, in a simple manner,the desired adjustment in the corset for accommodating and providingadequate support to the users abdomen during successive stages ofpregnancy wherein the adbominal enlargement is increasing in size.

It is essential that the straps 44 and 46 be fabricated of materialhaving substantially no elasticity. For reasons described earlier,namely, to avoid cutting the wearer when in a sitting position, thestraps 44 and 46 must necessarily be narrow. Being narrow, if the straps44 and 46 are not relatively inelastic, they will extend unduly, makingadjustment of the auxiliary support panel 30 difficult.

An important advantage provided by the corset of this invention is theability of the garment to be comfortably worn by women regardless of thelocation of their hips. For example, the corset of this invention can beworn equally well and without discomfort by women having high, low, wideand narrow hips. The manner in which the corset of this inventionaccommodates users regardless of hip location is illustrated in FIG. 4.With reference to FIG. 4, it is noted that the strap 46 can assumedifferent vertical positions relative to the side panel 18, depending onthe hip location of the wearer. In the solid line position the strap 46is in a relatively high vertical position to accommodate wearers havingone hip location, whereas in the dotted line position the strap 46 is ina relativel low position to accommodate wearers having a different hiplocation. With the strap 46 capable of varying vertical positionsrelative to the panel 18, different wearers having different hippositions can properly locate the strap 46 to positions of comfort withrespect to their own particular hip location. The ability of the strap46 to shift vertically is attributed to the fact that the tapered ends34 and 35, and 40 and 41 of the abdominal panel 30 and the anchor panel36, respectively, can move in an arcuate manner, i.e., pivot or swivel,relative to the lines 31 and 39 at which they are secured to the corsetpanels 27 and 16.

Having described the invention, what is claimed is:

1 A therapeutic garment adapted to be worn about the trunk only of apregnant woman having a distended abdominal region, said garmentcomprising:

interconnected back, front and opposite right and left side sectionsconfigured to enclose the entire trunk only of the wearer, substantiallythe entirety of said front section being relatively highly elastic toconform to differently sized abdominal enlargements found in successivestages of pregnancy,

an elastic abdominal support panel overlying said front section andhaving a lower edge and tapered opposite right and left ends terminatingadjacent said right and left side sections, respectively, saidelasticity of said support panel being substantially less than theelasticity of said front panel, said support panel being connected onlyalong its lower edge to said front section,

an anchor panel secured to said back section and having tapered oppositeright and left ends terminating adjacent said right and left sidesections, respectively, and

selectively variable length right and left narrow inelastic strapsoverlying said right and left side sections, respectively, said rightstrap interconnecting the right tapered ends of both said anchor andsupport panels, and said left strap interconnecting the left taperedends of both said anchor and support panels.

2. A therapeutic garment adapted to be worn about the trunk only of apregnant woman having a distended abdominal region, said garmentcomprising:

interconnected back, front and opposite right and left side sectionsconfigured to enclose the entire trunk only of the wearer, substantiallythe entirety of said front section being relatively highly elastic toconform to differently sized abdominal enlargements found in successivestages of pregnancy,

an elastic abdominal support panel overlying said front section andhaving a lower edge and laterally and upwardly extending taperedopposite right and left ends terminating adjacent said right and leftside sections, respectively, said elasticity of said support panel beingsubstantially less than the elasticity of said front panel, said supportpanel being connected only along its lower edge to said front section,

an anchor panel secured to said back section and having downwardly andlaterally extending tapered opposite right and left ends terminatingadjacent said right and left side sections, and

right and left selectively variable length narrow inelastic strapsoverlying said right and left side sections, respectively, said rightstrap angled upwardly and rearwardly and interconnecting the righttapered ends of both said anchor and support panels, and said left strapangled upwardly and rearwardly and interconnecting the left tapered endsof both said anchor and support panels.

3. A therapeutic garment adapted to be worn about the trunk only of apregnant woman having a distended abdominal region, said garmentcomprising:

interconnected back, front and opposite right and left side section'sconfigured to enclose the entire trunk only of the wearer, substantiallythe entirety of said front section being relatively highly elastic toconform to differently sized abdominal enlargements found in successivestages of pregnancy,

an elastic abdominal support panel overlying said front section andhaving a lower edge and tapered opposite right and left ends terminatingadjacent said right and left side sections, respectively, saidelasticity of said support panel being substantially less than theelasticity of said front panel, said support panel being connected onlyalong its lower edge to said front section,

right and left triangular anchor panels each having a vertical base edgeand opposite apex, said vertical base edges being secured to said backsection, said right and left apexes terminating adjacent said right andleft side sections at points higher than said right and left taperedends of said abdominal support panel, and

right and left selectively adjustable narrow inelastic straps overlyingsaid right and left side sections, respectively, said right strapconnected between the apex of said right anchor panel and the right endof said support panel, said left strap connected between the apex ofsaid left anchor panel and the left end of said support panel.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS FOREIGN PATENTS 449,420 9/1927Germany 128579 ROBERT W. MICHELL, Primary Examiner J. H. WOLFF,Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 128539, 547, 553

